


Stay For The Night

by anysin



Category: Gravity Falls, Rick and Morty
Genre: Angst, Cuddling & Snuggling, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-06
Updated: 2018-09-06
Packaged: 2019-07-07 18:04:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15913467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anysin/pseuds/anysin
Summary: Rick can't fix the portal, but he stays for the night. Stanchez.





	Stay For The Night

Rick only needs one hour with Ford’s machine to come to a conclusion.

“I can’t fix this, Stan,” he says. “I’m sorry.”

Stan feels like he’s drowning in cold water. “Why not?” He refuses to believe that Rick isn’t smart enough to do it. Ford is a genius, but Rick is in whole other league. There is no way he hasn’t figured that thing out.

Turns out Stan is right, just not the way he wanted.

“If I f-f-fix this, the whole multiverse will be destroyed. The p-power in this machine is insane, Stan. I don’t understand how your brother managed to build it.” Rick looks away, grinding his teeth. He looks frustrated. “He had some kind of magic to help him. I don’t know magic. You need your brother’s books to be able to operate this properly.”

Stan’s stomach drops. “I have no idea where they are,” he says. “He gave me the most useless one! How am I-?” He covers his face with his hands, trying to calm himself down. He had put all his hopes in Rick being able to fix the machine, bring Ford back. But if he can’t, then nobody can. Least of all Stan.

Ford is lost and it’s all his fault.

“H-hey.” Rick takes a step towards him, hand extended out but not touching Stan. “You need the b-b-books. They are here somewhere, they can’t be that hard to find.” He takes another step forward and this time he’s close enough to touch Stan, patting him on the shoulder. “You can do it.”

Stan wants him to stop with the fake optimism.

Instead, he says: “Please stay with me tonight.”

*

“No,” Rick says when he sees the bench. “I’m not sleeping on that. There are p-p-proper beds here, right?”

So far, Stan has only thought about getting himself a real bed, so the only real one in the house is in Ford’s old room. He cringes, shaking his head. “Is the couch good?” he asks. 

Rick’s grimaces a bit, but he shrugs. “It’ll do.”

In the living room, Rick makes Stan lie down on the couch first before joining him, squeezing himself between Stan’s body and the back of the couch. Stan gets pushed near the edge of the couch as a result, but he doesn’t mind, wrapping an arm around Rick’s shoulders while Rick slings one long leg around Stan’s thighs.

“I can keep an eye on your brother when I t-travel around,” Rick mumbles to him. “I can’t make promises since the multiverse is fucking biuuuuuuuuurp, but I’ll watch out for him and drag his ass back home if I find him.”

Stan bites his lip, chest feeling so full he thinks it might burst any moment now. “Thank you,” he says, leaning in so he can kiss Rick on his temple. Rick takes advantage of the kiss immediately, lifting his hand on Stan’s cheek so he can guide their mouths together, kissing him hard for a moment before letting him go.

“The least I can do,” Rick says. He wraps his arms and legs around Stan, squeezing him tight. “And the least you can do is look for those j-j-journals. I refuse to believe they’re so hard to find.”

“Ford called me over so I’d take the last one away.” Stan has spent so many times repeating that day in his mind that he’s sort of tired of it, but there it’s going again, replaying in his head in perfect clarity. “The others must be somewhere far away too. I’ve found zero hints about where they could be.”

“Hmmph.” Rick rests his forehead against Stan’s, staring down at his jaw. “I disagree, but whatever.”

The indifferent ‘whatever’ would be offensive coming from anyone else, but from Rick it’s just Rick stuff; Stan doesn’t mind. He gives Rick another kiss before closing his eyes, wrapping his other arm around Rick too.

It’s nice, not falling asleep alone for once. It keeps him from thinking too much.

*

The next morning, Rick is gone.

Part of Stan is miffed that Rick couldn’t keep his promise all the way to the end, but he knows he probably should have specified that he wanted Rick to stay until he woke up, maybe even for breakfast. He gets up on the couch and walks into the kitchen, unable to not hope that Rick would be there waiting for him.

Rick isn’t.

It’s probably better that way. He wasn’t able to help with the portal in the end; it’s good that Stan doesn’t start depending on him for other things, either.


End file.
